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Teachers, this Christmas celebrate your pupils

29 November 2017

Christmas is a time to celebrate. How often, though, do we celebrate things instead of people? Teachers have a great opportunity to help children understand how important people are by not only focusing on grades and academic achievements, but on attitude and character. The Cambridge-educated book author and school administrator in Kenya, Philp E. Dow, in his book, “Virtuous Minds”, talks about the impact one’s attitude towards learning can have on one’s academic results. He highlights that we should applaud pupils who take the risk of asking a question in class for clarification as this demonstrates intellectual courage. He says: “Those who are intellectually courageous earnestly want to know the truth, and so they take risks in the pursuit and promotion of truth."

There is no grade for intellectual courage, yet, teachers can foster an attitude of inquisitiveness through praise and rewards. The same is the case for pupils’ outlook towards others. Do they see classmates as competition or do they treat them as equals?

This Christmas, take time to praise children for their courage to find out more and to ask questions and - much of what the Christmas message really is about – for showing kindness towards others, being thoughtful and generous towards others.

Children enjoy knowing that their contribution to the classroom and their community is important. Being praised for being kind is special in an environment where children can be everything but. A teacher’s reward does not stop at the school door. Its impact can be felt at home as children hold up their special certificate, personalised pencil or shiny sticker with a big smile on their face. It offers parents a great opportunity to pick up from and reinforce that attitude towards learning and people does matter.

Christmas is a great time to roll out those special rewards with that little extra sparkle. Explore Brainwave’s sparkly character rewards packs with that extra Christmas feel.eth